SECT. IL. When the fcriptures are quoted, or alluded to, they are quoted with peculiar refpect, as books fui generis, as poffeffing an authority which belonged to no other books, and as conclufive in all questions and controverfies among ft Chriftians. BESIDE the general ftrain of reference and quotation, which uniformly and ftrongly indicates this diftinction, the following may be regarded as fpecific teftimonies. I. Theophilus*, Bishop of Antioch, the fixth in fucceffion from the apoftles, and who flourished little more than a century after the books of the New Teftament were written, having occafion to quote one of our gofpels, writes thus: Thefe things the holy fcriptures teach us, and all who were moved by the holy fpirit, among whom John fays, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with "God.' Again; concerning the righteousness which the law teaches, the like things are to be found in the prophets and the gospels, because that all being infpired, spoke by one and the fame fpirit of Godt. No words can teftify more strongly than thefe do, the high and peculiar respect in which thefe books were holden. II. A writer against Artemont, who may be fuppofed to come about one hundred and fifty-eight years after the publication of the fcriptures, in a paffage quoted by Eufebius, ufes thefe expreffions: *Lard. Cred. pr. ii. vol. I. p. 429. Ib. vol. III. p. 40. C Poffibly Poffibly what they (our adverfaries) fay, might have been credited, if first of all the divine fcriptures did not contradict them; and then the writings of certain brethren, more ancient than the times of Victor.' The brethren mentioned by name, are, Juftin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clement, Irenæus, Melito, with a general appeal to many more not named. This paffage proves, firft, that there was at that time a collection called divine fcriptures; fecondly, that thefe fcriptures were esteemed of higher authority than the writings of the moft early and celebrated Chriftians. III. In a piece afcribed to Hippolitus*, who lived near the fame time, the author profeffes, in giving his correfpondent inftruction in the things about which he enquires, to draw out of the facred foun . tain and to fet before him the facred fcriptures, gent, what may afford him fatisfaction.' He then quotes immediately Paul's epiftles to Timothy, and afterwards many books of the New Teftament. This preface to the quotations, carries in it a marked diftinction between the fcriptures and other books. IV. Our affertions and difcourfes,' faith Oriare unworthy of credit; we must receive. the fcriptures as witneffes.' After treating of the duty of prayer, he proceeds with his argument thus: what we have faid may be proved from the divine fcriptures. In his books against Celfus, we find this paffage: That our religion teaches us to feek after wisdom, fhall be fhown, both out of the ancient Jewith fcriptures which we alfo ufe, and out of those written fince Jefus, which are believed in the churches to be divine.' Thefe expreffions afford abundant evidence of the peculiar and exclufive authority which the fcriptures poffeffed. * Lard. Cred. vol. III. p. 112. K 3 Ib. p. 287, 288, 289. V. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage*, whofe age lies clofe to that of Origen, earneftly exhorts Chrif tian teachers in all doubtful cafes, to go back to the fountain; and if the truth has in any cafe been fhaken, to recur to the gofpels and apoftolic writings. The precepts of the gofpel,' fays he in another place, are nothing lefs than authoritative divine leffons, the foundations of our hope, the fupports of our faith, the guides of our way, the fafe-guards of our courfe to heaven.' VI. Novatust, a Roman, contemporary with Cyprian, appeals to the fcriptures, as the authority by which all errors were to be repelled, and difputes decided. That Chrift is not only man but God alfo, is proved by the facred authority of the divine writings. The divine fcripture easily detects and confutes the frauds of heretics.' It is not by the fault of the heavenly fcriptures, which never deceive.' Stronger affertions than thefe could not be used. VII. At the diftance of twenty years from the writer laft cited, Anatolius, a learned Alexandrian, and Bishop of Laodicea, fpeaking of the rule for keeping Eafter, a queftion at that day agitated with much earneftnefs, fays of thofe whom he oppofed, they can by no means prove their point by the authority of the divine fcripture.' VIII. The Arians, who fprung up about fifty years after this, argued ftrenuoufly against the use of the words confubftantial and effence, and like phrafes; because they were not in fcripture §. And in the fame ftrain, one of their advocates opens a conference with Auguftine, after the following manner: If you fay what is reafonable, I muft fubmit. *Lard. Cred. vol. IV. p. 840. Ib. Cred. vol. V. p. 146. P. 102. Ib. vol. V. If you allege any thing from the divine fcriptures, which are common to both, I must hear. Bur unfcriptural expreffions (quæ extra fcripturam funt) deferve no regard.'. Athanafius, the great antagonist of Arianifm, after having enumerated the books of the Old and New Teftament, adds, "thefe are the fountains of "falvation, that he who thirfts may be fatisfied with "the oracles contained in them. In thefe alone "the doctrine of falvation is proclaimed. Let no "man add to them, or take any thing from 66 them*. IX. Cyril, Bishop of Jerufalemt, who wrote about twenty years after the appearance of Ariauifm, ufes thefe remarkable words: "concerning the "divine and holy myfteries of faith, not the leaft "article ought to be delivered without the divine ઃઃ fcriptures." We are affured, that Cyril's fcriptures were the fame as ours, for he has left us a ca talogue of the books included under that name. X. Epiphaniust, twenty years after Cyril, challenges the Arians, and the followers of Origen, "to produce any paffage of the Old or New Tef "tament, favouring their fentiments." XI. Phæbadius, a Gallic Bishop who lived about thirty years after the council of Nice, teflifies, that "the bishops of that council firft confulted the fa"cred volumes, and then declared their faith §." 66 XII. Bafil, Bifhop of Cæfarea, in Cappadocia, contemporary with Epiphanius, fays, "that hearers inftructed in the fcriptures, ought to examine what is faid by their teachers, and to embrace what is "agreeable to the fcriptures, and to reject what is otherwife. وو *Lard. Cred. vol. XII. p. 182. K 4 Ib. vol. VIII. p. 276. XIII. Ephraim, the Syrian, a celebrated writer of the fame times, bears this conclufive teftimony to the propofition which forms the fubject of our prefent chapter: "The truth written in the facred vo"lume of the gofpel, is a perfect rule. Nothing can be taken from it, nor added to it, without great guilt." XIV. If we add Jerome to thefe, it is only for the evidence which he affords of the judgment of preceding ages. Jerome obferves, concerning the quotations of ancient Chriftian writers, that is, of writers who were ancient in the year 490, that they made a diftinction between books, fome they quoted as of authority, and others not: which obfervation relates to the books of fcripture, compared with other writings, apocryphal or heathen +. SECT. III. The fcriptures were in very early times collected into a diftinct volume. IGNATIUS, who was Bishop of An tioch within forty years after the afcenfion, and who had lived and converfed with the apoftles, fpeaks of the gofpel and of the apoftles, in terms which render it very probable, that he meant by the gofpel, the book or volume of the gofpels, and by the apoftles, the book or volume of their epiftles. His words in one place aret," fleeing to the gofpel as *Lard. Cred. vol. IX. p. 202. + Ib. vol. X. p. 123, 124. Ib. pr. ii. vol. I. p. 180. the |